FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved

Letter by FFWD Reader Re: Egosystems versus ecosystems, by Timothy Wild (Books, August 24 issue) I would like to comment on the fawning over, I mean the article, on Maurice Strong. Every left-wing, environmental cliché was doled out over this worn-out and faded individual. The one I laughed at the most was his extra credibility that he was an oil industry insider and therefore has a greater understanding over the evils of "Big Oil." It was trotted out that he was an executive with both Petro-Canada and Ontario Hydro. Excuse me, but weren't these political appointments by the federal and Ontario Liberals? If he were at any other real oil company in Calgary, he wouldn't have been qualified to clean the toilets in the men's washroom. Even more hysterical was his perpetuation of the myth that capitalism is solely responsible for the degradation of the environment. I can't believe he can say this with a straight face. Look at the former Soviet Union – Chernobyl is a disaster that Europe will pay for for thousands of years. And, no, this couldn't have happened in the West because our "capitalist" reactors are designed better and they all have containment buildings, something the Soviet leadership thought their people didn't deserve. The arms race in Russia has left thousands and possibly millions of acres of land unusable for both nature and humans because of unsafe nuclear testing. Siberia is awash in lakes of oil due to leaky pipelines. This all in an environment where there was no profit motive, but there was absolutely no motive to do the right thing because people had no power to demand safeguards. And of course, being a true Liberal, Strong's got to get his shots in on the Klein Tories which, of course, is de rigeur with the left. The Klein government scoffed at the Kyoto Accord on global warming because it was a weak report that was subject to bad interpretation. I wouldn't wash my dog with that report, it was so full of holes. I'm not suggesting for a moment that we should ignore the signs of a deteriorating environment, however, I get sick of the old, tired, so-called arguments people use to attack other people who are just doing their jobs. Everyone could start tomorrow and bring their level of consumption down. No, buddy, you don't need a five-litre engine for your SUV. Maurice, the environment is a motherhood issue. Have you noticed there are no advocacy groups for destroying the environment? Hey, we're all on the same side here. Just don't go pointing fingers and sitting up on your high horse thumbing your nose at the great unwashed. You're right on one point, we don't need any more "ego"-systems. Get the point? Dennis Taylor, Calgary

| Back To This Issue Table of Contents | Back To Main Index |